8 MLB Hitters Who Are Racking Up Home Runs Despite a Ton of Ground Balls
Yasiel Puig, Los Angeles Dodgers
You wanna know how smooth everything is going for the Los Angeles Dodgers this year? Well, outfielder Yasiel Puig has barely been a distraction and his production at the plate hasn't been this good since 2014.
Not only are Puig's 21 bombs a new single-season career high, but so are his 12 stolen bases, which is the first time he's reached double digits in this department since 2014. The native Cuban has been a notorious free-swinger since bursting onto the scene in 2013, but his current 46.5% swing rate is on pace to be a career low, as is his 11.2% swinging-strike rate.
This shift in approach is evidenced by his 11.7% walk rate, but he's not chasing fewer pitches out of the zone -- his swings on pitches that are considered strikes has dropped nearly seven percentage points compared to last year. And surprisingly enough, all but one of Puig's homers have come against right-handed hitters this year.
So he's taken an interesting route toward his current 109 wRC+ and .336 wOBA, which includes a 51.0% ground-ball rate. Despite hitting fly balls just 33.3% of the time, check out how his quality of contact has changed for this batted-ball event compared to 2016.
| Year | Soft% | Med% | Hard% |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 32.6% | 31.5% | 35.9% |
| 2017 | 18.0% | 42.0% | 40.0% |
After seeing a change this drastic, it shouldn't be surprising to hear that his ISO on fly balls has improved from the .444 mark he posted last year to the .629 mark he's currently producing.
